Flying sure has changed since I graduated college. Then, a shoestring budget, airtight flight schedules, coach, public transportation and big, bulky luggage made flying downright miserable. I remember too many winter and spring breaks spent shoulder to shoulder on the R1 from University City to the airport, hustling to swing my suitcase full of dirty laundry—which typically outweighed me—off the train and onto the ice and salt-encrusted platform as a crowd bumped and pushed past, listening to stressed college kids and professors whine loudly on cell phones in security lines that stretched from one terminal to another, then listening to their whines rise to roars as flights were delayed or canceled. Stressed travelers, overburdened airline staff, crappy weather, too many crying babies…what a mess.

Today’s flight was far less stressful. Granted, who flies to Hawaii on a random Wednesday in early March, but still. I checked in online and printed my boarding pass for my connecting flight. This morning, my dad dropped my mom and I off at the Van Nuys Flyaway terminal, where I was able to print my boarding pass for my first flight for a paltry $3. Once at the airport, after a 40-minute ride on the 405, I was sitting at the gate in less than ten minutes.

My dad used to work at TWA, or Trans World Airlines. You’ve probably heard of them—if you’re my age, it’s probably unfortunately because of Flight 800, the disastrous crash from which the airline was never able to recover. He got standby tickets for unreasonably cheap prices, as all airline employees do, which enabled us to jet-set around the world for seven glorious years. Back then, the Van Nuys Flyaway terminal was literally a tiny ramshackle bus depot, where you’d wait on the sidewalk until the bus approached, pay your $3 at the bus door and off you went. Today, this behemoth is quite literally a terminal in itself, with automated ticket kiosks and the ability to check your luggage and print your boarding pass for additional fees. At $6 per round-trip ticket, it’s worth every penny to sit in an air-conditioned luxury bus, looking down at the cars around you in the parking lot that is the 405 at rush hour.

Also quite beneficial to the flight process is the addition of coffee shops and tiny bistro tables. These did not exist when I flew even two years ago. I was able to tap away on my laptop sipping tea until my flight began boarding, quite a comfortable change from sitting in cramped, uncomfortable plastic rows of seats. My flight was only 2/3 full, which would have been great had I been assigned an unsavory seat, but I’d chosen an exit row seat online so it didn’t matter much.

Now, for breakfast. Yes, breakfast! Delta is one of the few airlines that still serves hot complimentary meals to its passengers. We all got a small cheese omelet, two slices of fried potatoes, two tiny sausage links, a small blueberry muffin and a fruit cup. I also ponied up the $5 for a surprisingly tasty specialty cocktail—the ever-popular pomegranate martini. A balanced breakfast, to say the least.

I’ll have to MacGuyver up some kind of Internet connection for my stay in Kona. Until then…